Guide for the Processing of Personal Data for Electoral Purposes

Through Resolution No. 86/2019, the Agency of Access to Public Information (the “Agency”)  approved the “Guide for the processing of personal data for electoral purposes” (the “Guide”), whose purpose is to set out basic guidelines to ensure the integrity and the protection of citizens’ personal data in the context of an electoral process. The Guide is primarily aimed at associations, political organizations, candidates, think tanks, consultants, and anyone who handles personal data in order to conduct or contribute to an electoral campaign.

The Guide is divided into eleven main topics: (i) fundamental principles for the protection of personal data, (ii) registration, (iii) data subjects’ rights, (iv) consent, (v) political opinions, (vi) affiliation to political organizations, (vii) public data in social media, forums and web platforms, (viii) electoral propaganda in social media, message platforms and other web services, (ix) basic data, (x) rendering of data processing services, and (xi) security and confidentiality.

The Guide takes different obligations arising from the general data protection framework provided for in the Personal Data Protection Law N° 25,326 (“PDPL”) and complimentary regulations, and applies them to the specific case of the electoral campaigns, while also including some pertinent clarifications. Thus, it expressly establishes that data that reveals political opinions and the affiliation to a political organization is sensitive data, which can be legally processed with the consent of the data subject.

Finally, Resolution No. 86/2019 states that the Guide complements and must be interpreted in the context of the the PDPL, its regulatory decree No. 1558/2001, Convention No. 108 for the Protection of Persons regarding the Automated Treatment of Personal Data, and the resolutions issued by the Agency.  

The Guide in Spanish can be accessed here.